Tuesday, August 26, 2014

"General Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Engineer District,
in late 1944 commissioned a multi-volume history of the Manhattan
Project called the Manhattan District History. Prepared by
multiple authors under the general editorship of Gavin Hadden, a
longtime civil employee of the Army Corps of Engineers, the classified
history was "intended to describe, in simple terms, easily understood by
the average reader, just what the Manhattan District did, and how,
when, and where." The volumes record the Manhattan Project's activities
and achievements in research, design, construction, operation, and
administration, assembling a vast amount of information in a systematic,
readily available form. The Manhattan District History
contains extensive annotations, statistical tables, charts, engineering
drawings, maps, photographs, and detailed indices. Only a handful of
copies of the history were prepared. The Department of Energy's Office
of History and Heritage Resources is custodian of one of these copies."

"The history is arranged in thirty-six volumes grouped in eight books.
Some of the volumes were further divided into stand-alone chapters.
Several of the volumes and stand-alone chapters were never security
classified. Many of the volumes and chapters were declassified at
various times and were available to the public on microfilm. Parts of
approximately a third of the volumes remain classified."